Europe by Train – The Eurail Pass

By: MJ + PJ

This post is a guide to and reflection on the use of a Eurail Pass to travel in Europe for extended periods. We compare travel modes and discuss how we utilized the rail network for 90 days in early 2019 as a family of three.

In December we were looking at how we were going to get around Europe. We had decided we would stay in Europe rather than go to and from Asia, since we would only have to go that direction again to get to Australia.

Europe has a very dense network of buses, trains and flights. We thought train travel would be our best option (and this is what we chose), so we took the opportunity to get discounted end-of-year Eurail passes, obtaining the family three month global pass, first class (an extra cost but totally worth it – see the bottom of this post for more clarification). 

Our first class Eurail family pass cost $USD2300. This was to cover three months of travel within Europe. Yeah, that’s a costly pass. Ouch! (Even a conductor and ticketing person had a jaw drop moment when they saw that price on our pass!) But, it is for a long period – 90 days. That averages to $26/day, or $9 per person per day before any reservations. If you take a look at the table near the end of this post, you’ll see that it was a good investment… even though it made our December budget look terrible!

WHAT IS EURAIL and HOW DOES IT WORK?

The Eurail website was a bit confusing on our first encounter. We worked out that Eurail is essentially a third party working with most European rail carriers. Eurail caters for medium to long duration travel for those who live outside of Europe but who are visiting Europe. Once you define your likely train use, Eurail issues you a “pass”. This pass enables you to subsequently obtain free or heavily discounted rail tickets for each segment of your travel. 

[What if you are a European citizen? You use InterRail!]

In addition, the Eurail pass enables you to take some ferries and buses as transport (which we used). Some are free, depending on your pass type, while others are discounted. In each country Eurail has also partnered with other entities to enable discounted tour tickets or accommodation. These deals are found on the Eurail website.

To buy your Eurail pass you basically choose a date frame, travellers vs. family, and class of ticket (1st or 2nd). The pass is then mailed to a physical location where someone can sign for it upon arrival. This is possible worldwide, however if you are on the road already this can easily be a problem (…yes, us!). Luckily we were staying with friends at that time who could generously help us with this logistic. Eurail can also send the pass to hotels in Europe, but not Airbnbs unless you are there all week to be ready to sign for it.

Once you have your pass and number, you have to work out your train tickets. This can be ahead of time, or as you need them. Eurail facilitates but does not issue actual tickets. (It can assist with reservation purchasing – see their FAQs).

Eurail has an app, which helps with booking tickets for segments of travel – particularly for trains which require reservations (i.e. longer, faster, more popular, summer options). The app is useful for getting an overview of your whole trip, which cannot be done via train booking websites within a country (they only show segments). We did not use the Eurail site to book tickets for segments, rather we took the overview information to book… in person.

Why in person in this digital age? While online booking is convenient and possible, some vendors can require you to have an actual address – physical train tickets may be sent to you in some situations. This sounds terribly archiac but we did not actually encounter this problem. We read the warnings about this and decided to most often take the other option: a real live person at a ticketing office at an actual station. That said, some tickets you can purchase online and elect to print out at the station, others create an electronic ticket.

Visiting a ticketing desk with your Eurail pass and speaking to someone is the best option for a number of reasons:

– You are there at the station anyway, either getting on or off a train. If not, train stations are fairly central to where you will likely be, so are easy to find and visit.

– This is the person’s job, and they will know a lot more about how to get from A to B than you think you know.

– They can better adjust a schedule to give you extra minutes between trains when you have a few changes to make. (Google Maps can help the best with high frequency regional train and metro schedules)

– They can print out an actual ticket, and a schedule summary of your train changes (transfers). These will then be in your posession – not delivered on a random day with you sitting there waiting for it!

– You may be able to find out what you get in first class (must have First Class as your Eurail pass type), and decide if you want to pay the extra on the reservation or just go second class. We paid some first class fees on long distance trains, but not on trips or segments less than two hours.

If you elect to print your ticket at the station (i.e. in France), you need your booking code. If there is no WiFi and your email app didn’t load the ticket, you have a problem… like we did… causing our Paris train connection drama. (Strangely, printing documents on the road can be very challenging – you may have to get creative finding a printer for visas and tickets!)

Another aspect of online booking for trains is that if you want to go from, say, Barcelona to Bruges, you will encounter the following fun problem: The Eurail app will show you your entire journey (every train and time and location etc.) and tell you it is possible. (Hooray!) The train booking websites will tell you “We are unable to find a train”. (Wait… what?)

What you need to remember is that local and regional trains cannot be booked… you usually just get on the train and show your Eurail pass and where you logged the train trip in your pass (a mandatory procedure) to the conductor. Inter-regional and international trains usually can (and should) be booked. So if you are going from point A to D one day, you might only be able to reserve or ‘secure a ticket’ for part B and/or C of that trip. So do that, one at a time, until you have it pieced together like it was outlined on the Eurail app.

While this sounds arduous, it’s simple when you know that’s how it works. We used online chat with a train booking company to work out that this was what was going on. Think segments, not the whole journey. Like we said earlier… just go talk to a real person if you can!

The only barrier we encountered at an in-station booking was being unable to book a train that operated in the next country. For example from Spain we could not book our Paris to Brussels segment in person. This we did online – mostly because it was for a Sunday, the segment was reservable, and it was within France (reserving is almost essential there). From the Netherlands to Austria (completely across Germany) we had no such barrier – the ticketing person at The Hague reserved both four hour segments. Just ask, and you’ll find out what to do!

IS THE EURAIL PASS ACTUALLY WORTH IT?

So you have your pass, and you have your ticket. You take a few trains and you wonder if you are ever going to make up that initial pass cost. We certainly contemplated if we would have been better off just buying train tickets as we went along.

Being nerds, we recorded these things. (If you are not a nerd – bad news – you have to record each trip on the Eurail pass diary anyhow. Like we mentioned it’s mandatory.) We also compared the pass costs to what each train ticket would usually cost if purchased separately (no pass), and what a bus or a flight would cost for the same segment.

Below is a table with our data for you to chew on. All amounts are in USD for a family of two adults and one child. Some discussion follows the table. (If you are viewing on a mobile device, turn your device to view in “landscape” in order to see the table in the correct format).

#Where we would have taken a train anyway, we put in the usual train cost.
*Each flight cost has an extra $90 added for the usual 3x$20 baggage fees average on discount flights, and $10 each person for airport transfers.

The bus and plane costs are estimates based on the day of travel and the likely ticket we would have bought for that mode of travel. Because we would not (or could not) fly or bus to the next city, nor to and from a local area to see something, we added the usual train cost for that day to bus and plane tallies. These totals show how much it cost for transport for everything we actually did, not just between major regions. See the example in the Travel Diary photo above!

Using buses appears to be the cheapest mode when they are available between destinations. Most of the difference between the bus estimate and our Eurail pass use is our choice to have a first class pass. If we had elected a second class Eurail pass the difference with going by bus would have been nothing and in favour of train travel based on speed and comfort.

Flying is more expensive, but not quite as expensive as usual trains. This oddity is because some long but direct flights can be slightly cheaper than taking several reservable yet indirect trains. For example – getting from Prague to Athens! (Yes, we flew this route!) Flying tends to present with accessory costs and is more restrictive.

Clearly, the total cost of the Eurail pass was worth it when compared to usual train tickets or by flying. By the time we got to Austria at the end of the first month of Eurail pass use, we had broken even for the initial cost of the pass. We still had two months of use left! The end average total cost was $38/day, or $13 per person per day for our family of three (including all reservations and first class fees).

We used this Eurail pass heavily – we took over 70 train rides in three months! Our pass envelope was beat up and duct taped to keep it in one piece! Twelve of our trains we had to reserve. We usually utilized first class (on both reservable AND non-reservable trains) – a moderately more expensive reservation… but worth it. These same reservations on a usual second class train ticket would have cost us a total of about $2500 more – a hypothetical difference only. The real difference was that almost all of our regional and local trains cost nothing, which accounts for the difference between Eurail pass holding and usual train ticket purchasing.

The other option we considered was to buy and use a car! We are glad we didn’t! We doubt having a vehicle would compete with numbers of the modes shown above once you take into account vehicle purchase, insurance, fuel (estimated as at least USD2200 for our distance), parking fees (eek!), maintenance and repairs (bah!).

The only time we used a ferry (some ferries are included in the Eurail pass) was to get from Patras, Greece, to Venice, Italy. This was about a 35 hour journey so we reserved a three bed cabin rather than just having standard seats. A cabin is discounted (but still rather pricey) if you have a first class Eurail pass. If we were solo or a couple only we would have just sat for no fare except the charges for ferry fuel and taxes.

Eurail also discounts buses in some areas where rail does not exist (anywhere surrounding Greece!). We did not utilize bus options, however we did get a transfer bus twice while traveling by train due to local train line disruptions (these buses were provided by the train company free of charge).

Ok. So having a Eurail pass as a family for a long period of travel (your entire visa duration!) in Europe is cost effective. Cost is the quantitative aspect of the train pass. The qualitative aspects of using trains added another layer of reasons as to why we initially chose to utilize the train network in Europe.

Here are the main pros and cons we considered with each mode of transport for our sized family in this late winter season:

TRAINS

PROS:

+ Overnight train can reduce a night accommodation cost (if you sit and do not use a bunk/cabin). However, bunks/cabins provide sleeping quarters and privacy.

+ Trains take you to close to the centre of the city because when these stations were built cities were smaller.

+ Trains often have a cafeteria or seat service in first class.

+ You know where your luggage is, and you can usually see it from where you sit on a train. 

+ Luggage doesn’t cost you anything extra, and you can take weighty items.

+ You can get up and walk around, and you can observe the towns and countryside that you pass through on both sides. (Note: Swiss trains have huge windows!)

+ If there’s a cancellation or delay, you know straight away and you can figure out the next option easily in the station.

CONS:

– It takes longer than flying, but is not as long as a taking bus.

– It can be noisy on a train, and you have to be ok with the movement of the train.

– For reservable trains, there is a fee.

BUSES

PROS:

+ Cheaper from place to place.

+ Take you near the centre of a city.

+ Overnight buses may offer a light snack or meal.

+ No extra fees for luggage.

+ No security lines.

CONS:

– For bus safety (e.g. in South America!) you want to use a very reliable operator.

– Buses will take much longer than a train or plane for long distances.

– Limited space and it can get stuffy inside the bus.

– You cannot get up and move around easily.

– Not as comfortable seating, and if there are toilets they can be unreliable.

– Luggage is underneath and can be obscured by bay doors as others collect their luggage (security risk).

FLIGHTS

PROS:

+ Fast and direct

+ Security is enforced.

+ Smooth and even motion of the plane… unless you hit turbulence.

+ Comfortable… as long as you are not sitting next to a seat hog.

CONS:

– Need to catch local transport to the airport which is usually out of town.

– May not fly into your destination, so you will need ground transfers

– It can be a long time between flights to the same destination, and probably for a different price.

– Baggage fees and weight limits for each item of checked luggage.

– Security lines and waiting in lines often.

– Limited space for pretty much everything.

WHY DID WE ELECT TO GET A FIRST CLASS EURAIL PASS?

With choosing first class we were hesitant, but we figured with three of us taking multiple trips over a long period of time there must be some clear benefits. There were, with these mainly being:

• Regional trains you can’t reserve a seat, but the first class seats are rarely competed for unlike 2nd class carriage seats.
• You will sit, not stand, and your luggage will have a space.
• First class sometimes gets WiFi, and this can enable you to be productive while sitting.
• First class is a little separated from (and quieter) than second class.
• First class sometimes includes food and drinks!

These factors made first class worth choosing for the very reasonable price/upgrade of about $300 for our particular type of pass and family size!

With first class we had the option to be in either class, with second class tickets, you simply cannot upgrade without paying more at the station. Also, some larger stations (e.g. Salzburg Hfb) have a First Class pre-boarding lounge where you can get snacks, food, and refreshments for free. This is useful if you arrive early to the station! 

IN A NUTSHELL WHAT DO WE CONCLUDE?

With our sized family unit, and considering our duration and luggage, taking trains and having the Eurail pass was a great decision. Phew! The pass cost was high initially, but that did motivate us to use it as much as we could.

If you want the absolute cheapest way to travel Europe, we suspect it should be a combined approach: Travel for a long duration, get a Eurail pass but don’t use reservable trains, go by bus when traveling inter-regionally or internationally, and use local and regional trains heavily.

On a related topic: our family decided by a 2:1 vote that there are two “chuggas” before “choo choo” (outlier vote was for 8).